Weekend Recap; Men Defeat Ranked Florida Tech

Apr 09, 2012

AMERICUS - Facing what seems like an endless list of ranked opponents, Georgia Southwestern tennis delivered an upset on Friday when the men defeated No. 42 Florida Tech, 5-4. The Lady Hurricanes suffered a 9-0 setback to No. 24 FIT and both the men and the women were defeated 9-0 by top 10 Columbus State programs on Saturday.

The Lady Hurricanes return to the courts on Monday afternoon to meet Albany State at 1 p.m. The GSW men host ABAC on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.

Below is a recap of the weekend matches:

GSW MEN 5, #42 FLORIDA TECH 4

After dropping seven matches this spring to opponents ranked 14th or higher in the country, the Georgia Southwestern men's team delivered an upset of a ranked program, beating Florida Tech, 5-4, on Friday afternoon at the Susan K. Smith Tennis Complex.

GSW put the pressure on FIT early after sweeping doubles play and taking a 3-0 lead.

Yvan Ruelle was two-time winner on the day, along with No. 2 doubles partner Ryan Bartz. Ruelle and Bartz teamed to defeat James McLane and Michael Schmidt, 8-5. Then, in singles action, Ruelle won 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3 singles over Barry Dylewski and Bartz defeated Schmidt, 7-5, 6-2, at No. 4 to give Southwestern the team victory.

Southwestern ran into an unhappy Columbus State squad coming off their only loss of the season, a defeat at the hands of Peach Belt Conference power No. 3 Armstrong Atlantic. The visiting Cougars took out their frustrations on the Lady 'Canes in a lopsided 9-0 defeat on Saturday afternoon in Americus.

GSW managed seven games in doubles play, but was overpowered by CSU in singles as the total game tally was 72-5 across the six matches.

The Lady Hurricanes drop to 6-12 overall and 2-8 in the PBC. Columbus State improves to 20-1 and 10-1 in conference.